I’m not a chemistry guy by any means, but I do know that the half-life of a substance
refers to the time it takes for half of its mass to decay…or something.
Anyways, I promise this is a clever joke, because Half-Life definitely hasn’t decayed
at all in the fifteen years since its release.
Developed by Valve and initially published by Sierra Entertainment, Half-Life represents
both the incredible Valve track record to come and, perhaps most importantly, a landmark
achievement for the first-person shooter genre, and the video game industry as a whole.
Half-Life did, and still does, amazing things, made no less impressive by the fact that this
was, in fact, a developer’s first game.
One of the most noticeable aspects of the game, still from a modern viewpoint, is its
approach to storytelling.
Loss of control over protagonist Gordon Freeman almost never happens.
Information is certainly told to the player, but never through cutscenes.
Sure, certain scientists and guards are necessary in order to open certain doors, but you never
have to sit and listen to the information they give, even if it is helpful and possibly
interesting.
Luckily, the game’s plot is interesting.
Playing as one of the most beloved protagonists in video game history, Gordon Freeman the
theoretical physicist, you try to escape the desert Black Mesa base after an experiment
goes horribly wrong and opens up a hole through the dimensions, allowing a hostile alien race
to pour into the facility.
Add in some government corruption with hostile marines, and a strange man in a suit, and
you’ve got yourself an intriguing reason to continue playing.
Obviously, that plot and storytelling is only a complement to the gameplay, however extraordinary.
But fittingly, the gameplay is fantastic.
Valve shooters’ still-characteristic and now-unique inability to aim down sights is
present, barring special snipers and the like.
But a slight auto-aim system certainly lessens any form of difficulty the missing mechanic
may have caused.
However, the enemies and sparse ammo refills see to it that the game isn’t just a walk
in the extremely dangerous military base.
On normal difficulty, Half-Life can be quite the challenge, but it’s never unfair.
Manual save states and forgiving autosave checkpoints make sure the difficulty is confined
to actual skill and game design, not due to overall game structure.
And, of course, there’s no self-regenerating health here.
Fortitude reinforcement can instead be found in health dispensers along many walls, and
the HEV suit, powered by batteries and energy dispensers similar to base health pick-ups,
acts as a second layer of protection against the alien and lead-filled attacks.
And, unique among many first-person shooters, Half-Life’s gameplay sometimes takes on
the air of a platformer, a welcome addition for anyone tired of the modern, and even other
classic, shooters.
Of course, there’s much more that makes Half-Life great.
Numerous enemy types, weapons including the iconic crowbar, a typical assault rifle, organic
alien weapons, and crazy sci-fi energy guns, somehow unique environments in the same military
base, and just the shooting feel add even more appeal to the game’s design.
There’s a reason Half-Life is not only considered one of the best games of its genre, but of
the industry as a whole.
Find the original game, the PS2 version, Half-Life: Source, the Black Mesa mod, whatever, but
play this game.
I always feel uneasy before playing a game so widely beloved, but this is one that lives
up to the high expectations.
This is Half-Life for PC.